CP, SI
(a) |
Examine how people of different cultures, including First Nations, have recorded (e.g., medicine wheel, Mayan calendar, Stonehenge, pyramids) and used understandings of astronomical phenomena (e.g., positions of the stars and/or planets) to solve practical problems such as the appropriate time to plant and harvest crops, to support navigation on land and water, or to foretell significant events through stories and legends. |
(b) |
Examine ways in which humans have represented understanding of or interest in astronomical phenomena through music, dance, drama, visual art, or stories. |
(c) |
Demonstrate the importance of selecting appropriate processes for investigating scientific questions and solving technological problems by explaining why astronomy is considered a part of science but astrology is not. |
(d) |
Propose personal explanations for the causes of seasons, phases, and eclipses. |
(e) |
Demonstrate how Earth's rotation causes the day and night cycle and how Earth's 23.5° tilt and revolution around the sun causes the yearly cycle of seasons. |
(f) |
Propose explanations for how the yearly cycle of seasons might differ if Earth's axis were not tilted. |
(g) |
Consider alternate models of seasons and explanations for those models (e.g., the six-season model of the Woodland Cree, the rainy and dry seasons of some tropical and subtropical regions). |
(h) |
Model the relative positions of the sun, Earth, and moon to demonstrate moon phases and lunar and solar eclipses. |
(i) |
Propose questions related to astronomical phenomena to investigate using models and simulations, such as "Do other planets exhibit phases?", "How would seasons on Earth differ if Earth were not tilted?", "How would patterns of eclipses change if the sun, Earth, or moon were different diameters or positioned at different locations?". |